2024 WUG TAT Affiliate Annual Reporting Deferment Request Reasoning

Why this happened

• User previously drafting and filing Tatar community activity reports was discovered to be non-compliant with User Group Primary Contact Rights & Expectations in place since 2020, unable to prioritize coming back into compliance with the foredescribed any time soon, and there's no ready replacement.
• 2024 Wikimedia Foundation approved mandatory Affiliate Health Reporting format is currently causing unacceptable legal, political, moral, societal and other risks to the Wikimedia language volunteers community in question and requires time to develop and implement appropriate risk-mitigation measures.
• Wikimedia Affiliations Committee can defer suspending/derecognition of the non-compliant affiliate - this will support community in its above-described efforts to strengthen its resilience and continue contributing on & offwiki towards achievement of Wikimedia Vision

Risks for the Community

All currently active members thereof are residents of Russia, which is officially not at war with Ukraine or NATO member states. The User Group is neither filing for, nor receiving any funding from either from WMF & affiliated entities, or any other external sources. The Wikimedia community in question prioritizes onwiki contribution in Tatar language to grow knowledge accessible therein, i.e. strengthening long-term language and its speakers' community resilience, and nothing else.

Conceptual confusion

Non-Wikimedians and Wikimedians alike have no clear understanding of what a specific Wikimedia movement affiliate is, intends or doing exactly, as there is no uniform understanding of what Wikimedia movement concept is describing. Possible examples for the latter include:

1. Everybody who shares and aspires towards Wikimedia Vision, which promotes knowledge creation and sharing under free licenses, ex. Creative Commons-ones used on Wikimedia projects
2. Everybody who benefits from Wikimedia projects-based content, appreciates and supports those who make it possible
3. Everybody who contributes into sharing Wikimedia projects content
4. Everybody who contributes into Wikimedia projects
5. Everybody who is recognized by USA-based Non-profit Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) controlled entities as valuable contributor into the above
6. Everybody in full compliance with WMF controlled entities developed models, policies and procedures or subordinate thereto in whatever other governance models or forms

WUG TAT is qualified for all of the above, except for the last one, and it doesn't seem likely to become anytime soon (because engaging in Wiki-bureaucracy or multilateral advocacy is not its priority). Moreover, its existence, just like that of Wikimedia movement itself, are not subject to existence of WMF, platforms it supports, or various entities it controls or funds. In this sense, joining Wikimedia movement is subject to mutual recognition as equals, with mutual affiliation meaning you respect my needs, I respect yours, without any rights or expectations over each other or its members. The community thus should avoid conceptual confusion risk altogether, making clear to all that statements or positions of WMF, any other or all of the Wikimedia entities (users, groups, chapters, Hubs, Councils, Boards, partners, etc.) are never be interpretable as the position of Tatar Wikimedians Community, until the latter has explicitly voted to approve it. In this sense, it might be advisable to switch into Recognized Unaffiliated Wikimedia User Group status, whenever such becomes a reality.

New Report Format

The expected report format is problematic, as

• its content is developed without participation of the UG
• it is in Q&A format, but only one side poses the questions - is a declaration of unequal dependent relationship
• specific questions are posed - shows an expectation that the local community accepts, abides by and promotes culturally foreign (alien) legal or quasi-legal code (namely Universal Code of Conduct and entities or social mechanisms mentioned or implied to therein, developed and approved by WMF and other Wikimedia movement bodies' staff and volunteers) is accepted by the local community in full with other related concepts and the UG should be abiding by and otherwise promoting it
• the fact of answering (all or even some of them) would be qualified as admitting by the filing person and thus the group on behalf of which this is done as indirectly recognizing and accepting the expectation above, approving the WMF and related entities' authority over the User Group members

Location and time specific

Just like Wikimedia movement and projects themselves, the language-specifc user group in question is pluralistic in character, spans accross space and time, consists of people possibly residing in different social and cultural contexts, having different views and only brought together by the language in which they are helping to grow and disseminate human knowledge. Any instance of the WUG TAT activities, including reports and relationships, shall be seen as causing unacceptable damage to the community it serves, now and in perpetuity.

The principle current risks derive from the below:

• Most WUG TAT members are likely to reside within Russia, large share - within its Tatarstan republic, which is flag-bearer for the language and culture. This means that non of the Russia national and Tatarstan regional level bodies should feel uncomfortable with the nature of WUG TAT and its relationships with WMF, platforms and entities under its control.
• WMF and/or other legal entities with an influence over the Wikimedia movement or its online platforms are not in compliance with 2023 Russian law mandating all foreign NGOs having any activities in Russia (including data transmission to/from) to be legally registered with the Russian Ministry of Justice and abide by the law of the land in all matters somehow related to Russia
• Unregistered activities of such are punished by first fines and later declaration as undesirable organization
• Citizen or resident cooperation with either is qualified as engagement in activities of an unregistered NGO, punishable by administrative fines first, then under criminal law
• 2024 Clause stating that any material support from such a foreign entity that can be qualified as a grant is qualified as high treason.

There are reasons to assume that all of the above are in the so-called sleeping provisions category that are likely to be used as politically appropriate (and might not be applied to some or most). These and other restrictive pieces of legislation are often vaguely phrased and/or interpreted as needed, with boundaries of acceptable constantly moving.

Culture-specific

A language is a protocol used for preservation of related cultural models that have been discovered to be useful by previous generations, which are often users' ancestors. So this is often not a reason, but an emotional memory based bond, which is usually most powerful. Whenever possible, it is more reasonable to preserve existing structures and use them, than spend energy to break/overcome/rebuild sustainable cultural models. Wikimedia Foundation, its platforms or movement entities developed around either of those are neither ancestors, nor employers, nor state or corporate policing enforcement bodies for volunteers to abide by.

Language-specific

Tatar is one of the underresourced languages per the size of its speakers' population, limited use in government, business or education, no practical support in E-gov or technology, no use in research. Its digital age viability is dependent on volunteers concentrating own efforts on widening and strengthening existing language use practices against encroaching dominant languages, such as global English, macroregional Russian, various CIS and other diaspora residing countries, such as Turkish, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Finnish etc. In this environment, it is highly unlikely that User Group objectives motivated volunteering members (including unpaid non-staff Primary contact) would be interested to invest own time into the expected Wikimedia bureaucracy overhead outside of periodic in-person entertaining community meetings (locally, nationally, on a macroregional and global levels), unless they happen to be qualified to do so and somehow enjoy the process (find personal pleasure and satisfaction from engaging in it).

Steps forward

Requesting Reporting Deferment of 1 Year

Community is to request AffCom to consider granting WUG TAT a one year deferment for reporting per new requirements for the reasons best qualified as direct government restriction.

Appropriate Risk-mitigation measures

Lowering external actors' potential political concerns

Adapting out out-of-date text on UG Meta-page

to receive grants and other materials

in Group Objective #5 was never a priority, turning into explicit risk for the community since 2022, especially in 2023 & 2024 developments.

Lowering volunteering community's public visibility

Primary risk is being perceived as non-comliant or not fully compliant with Russian legislation, political situation on the ground and perceptions of the population. With situation rapidly evolving, any visibility (historic or current public notability) can quickly turn from asset into liability. So it would be safer to all WUG TAT members to minimize external publicizing of own contribution into Wikimedia Wikis, whilst its previously publicly recognized voices lower own profile altogether. Local Wikimedia community should minimize potential losses in goodwill and wider community respect. Please note that Tatar Wikimedians is the only Wikimedia community and Tatar Wikipedia - the only language edition within the country that continues to receive periodic public signs of recognition, respect and coverage by regional government-controlled media, as well informally from the leading members of various branches of government, academia, social and cultural institutions.

Actively promoting political, ideological, cultural and other forms of pluralism and diversity respect

It's important that Tatar Wikipedia Mainpage, Sitenotice, Portals, overall Articles body and individual ones' structure, style, text and multimedia content are well-balanced and equally distant from all points of view.

Increasing perceived tangible utility of onwiki contribution

A Wiki and its community are only perceived as a welcomed friendly phenomena if these are seen as contributing into one's personal universe of values.

Community-wide active welcoming and onboarding support of new editors

To be welcomed, appreciated and valued a community must make everybody else feel welcomed, appreciated and valued in its spaces. First of all in the most visible of these - in Tatar Wikipedia, both as a reader and a contributor.

Developing local language wiki-based guides, recommendations, policies, lists and other solutions that help newcomers to create qualify wiki-content

Tatar Wikipedia community should aspire to give every newbie volunteer editor a chance to feel that their first and following edits are treated with respect and makes them proud co-owner of the project.

Identifying New Primary Contact

Tatar Wikimedia volunteers community needs to identify its new Primary Contact Candidate to serve as a Wikimedia frontend. It's an unpaid quasi staff-member position serving the community in its external interactions. Successful candidate must be:

• qualified to represent specific Wiki-community - native speaker of the language, active on Wikimedia Wikis in Tatar and in other communication mediums used by the community, trusted by the community to represent it in external communications
• fluent in reading, writing and verbal communication in English (or using MT for either), used by Wikimedia international community as a working language
• ready and willing to be
  • reading all the required documents, be it arriving via Email (directly or various thematic Mailing Lists), published on various Meta-pages and shared via Telegram or other appropriate media,
  • representing community during web-calls, surveys and other remote activities, initiated by Wikimedia international community, as well as
  • perform other functions expected by Wikimedia AffCom.

Once mitigation measures are in place and other necessary circumstancial changes happen, most likely candidates are the 4 that have attended Wikimedia volunteer conferences (2022, 2023 & 2024) and three others that were selected but didn't get to go. Other currently active Tatar volunteers or potential ones might also develop necessary qualifications.

Community Consultation